Travis Klempan
@travisklempan.bsky.social
Author of HAVE SNAKES, NEED BIRDS (Koehler Books) and HILLS HIDE MOUNTAINS (MilSpeak Books)
Pinned
Travis Klempan
@travisklempan.bsky.social
· Jan 21
Here’s a list of my writing and associated work…enjoy!
My second novel HILLS HIDE MOUNTAINS
My second novel HILLS HIDE MOUNTAINS
Happy Thanksgiving, ya filthy animals.
In honor of Thanksgiving: "...BLLHW takes place on Thanksgiving, fittingly enough..." //acolytesofwar.com/2013/08/18/thank-you-for-your-service-ben-fountains-billy-lynns-long-halftime-walk/
“Thank You for Your Service”: Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Most vets know that queasy ambivalence that comes when a well-meaning American tells them, “Thank you for your service.” The sentiment is sincere, but also a little bit feeble, maybe even something…
acolytesofwar.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Happy Thanksgiving, ya filthy animals.
“I have little desire to talk about AI”
Go with that feeling. Embrace it. Apply it to your life outside of Bluesky.
Go with that feeling. Embrace it. Apply it to your life outside of Bluesky.
Well I didn’t intend on poking it and I have little desire to talk about AI here again.
November 27, 2025 at 4:44 AM
“I have little desire to talk about AI”
Go with that feeling. Embrace it. Apply it to your life outside of Bluesky.
Go with that feeling. Embrace it. Apply it to your life outside of Bluesky.
Imagine having the workload of a dilettante and the perks of a minor lord and saying you’re crushed by it. Just supreme weak sauce. A literal zero on the Scoville scale of personhood. My dog ate goose poop and had diarrhea with more personal and structural integrity than this gomer.
Speaker 'barely holding it together' and 'crushed by his workload': NYT
Speaker 'barely holding it together' and 'crushed by his workload': NYT
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made several revealing admissions about the stressful and chaotic nature of his job, according to a recent New York Times report.The Times' Annie Karni wrote in a Wednesday article that Johnson turned what was meant to be an easy interview with a friendly podcast h...
bit.ly
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Imagine having the workload of a dilettante and the perks of a minor lord and saying you’re crushed by it. Just supreme weak sauce. A literal zero on the Scoville scale of personhood. My dog ate goose poop and had diarrhea with more personal and structural integrity than this gomer.
What a scumbag (Jance Dance Vance, not the fashion guy).
who actually likes electricity? raise your hand. haha, i see a joker back there. but ask yourself: how many times do you turn on the light in morning, just for fun? what about the afternoon. never, right? and why are you staying up so late? our forefathers tucked themselves in at 6pm like god inten—
November 26, 2025 at 10:08 PM
What a scumbag (Jance Dance Vance, not the fashion guy).
A serious top five karaoke song right there, that one.
“What’s up?” By 4 Non Blondes came on at work today and the guy on the line next to me and I looked at each other during the chorus and just started belting the fuck out of it. Would have restored my faith in humanity a little bit had the whole restaurant jumped in but alas.
November 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
A serious top five karaoke song right there, that one.
Reposted by Travis Klempan
Reposted by Travis Klempan
"ON WARS ... & AFTER-WARS!"
For readers and writers of modern military life! Great reads & gifts for those who serve, and those whose lives are touched by military service!
Available worldwide via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, @bookshop.org, and indie booksellers!
Round-up link: amzn.to/3MbKf9X
For readers and writers of modern military life! Great reads & gifts for those who serve, and those whose lives are touched by military service!
Available worldwide via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, @bookshop.org, and indie booksellers!
Round-up link: amzn.to/3MbKf9X
November 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
"ON WARS ... & AFTER-WARS!"
For readers and writers of modern military life! Great reads & gifts for those who serve, and those whose lives are touched by military service!
Available worldwide via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, @bookshop.org, and indie booksellers!
Round-up link: amzn.to/3MbKf9X
For readers and writers of modern military life! Great reads & gifts for those who serve, and those whose lives are touched by military service!
Available worldwide via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, @bookshop.org, and indie booksellers!
Round-up link: amzn.to/3MbKf9X
Tech bros should reinvent self-defenestration.
I'm serious when I say that STEM without the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities will produce more "innovative" tech bros who giddily reinvent rent, roommates, taxes, and...roller skates. With complete, straight-faced, sincerity. This is a problem. And I have a list (So, a thread )
November 26, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Tech bros should reinvent self-defenestration.
“The Basilisk’s going to get you”
I’m just gonna start lobbing that at tech bros preemptively.
I’m just gonna start lobbing that at tech bros preemptively.
Andy the cyber god is going to torture a simacrulum of you eternally in the future if you dont get better at defending his ascension
you have to get better at explaining why the data centers that only make life worse for everyone are good Andy
otherwise the Basilisk's going to get you
you have to get better at explaining why the data centers that only make life worse for everyone are good Andy
otherwise the Basilisk's going to get you
November 26, 2025 at 4:39 PM
“The Basilisk’s going to get you”
I’m just gonna start lobbing that at tech bros preemptively.
I’m just gonna start lobbing that at tech bros preemptively.
“Hey hold my AirPod case close to the skin while I spike one of these twins through the skull.”
"Next time you render your free AI-image in a couple of seconds, will you think of all the work, knowledge and skill that we HUMANS created over hundreds of years that made it possible?"
A medical illustrator had her work stolen by a famous surgeon dudebro ->
www.linkedin.com/posts/amanda...
A medical illustrator had her work stolen by a famous surgeon dudebro ->
www.linkedin.com/posts/amanda...
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 PM
“Hey hold my AirPod case close to the skin while I spike one of these twins through the skull.”
I aspire to this level of follow through
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:53 PM
I aspire to this level of follow through
At this point burning down AI isn’t enough. The entire tech bro culture is killing us and killing this planet.
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
At this point burning down AI isn’t enough. The entire tech bro culture is killing us and killing this planet.
THIS
People who are ‘AI’ boosters and whine about ‘anti-AI’ sentiment bewilder me. You have Twitter and LinkedIn; you have politicians and journalists on your side; businesses are all pro-AI.
What exactly do you want?
Yall behave like it’s literal sacrilege to be critical of AI
What exactly do you want?
Yall behave like it’s literal sacrilege to be critical of AI
November 26, 2025 at 1:03 PM
THIS
Dept of Corrections, not the Governor, saying this.
Also not saying that they do not intend to release her at all, only that they’re not responding to this request.
Also not saying that they do not intend to release her at all, only that they’re not responding to this request.
NEW: Tina Peters is staying put in a Colorado prison.
Colorado's Department of Corrections tells me it does not intend to respond to a DOJ request to move Peters to federal custody.
www.9news.com/article/news...
Colorado's Department of Corrections tells me it does not intend to respond to a DOJ request to move Peters to federal custody.
www.9news.com/article/news...
Tina Peters to remain in state custody despite federal request
The Colorado Department of Corrections is resisting federal pressure to transfer a former Mesa County clerk to federal custody, despite Trump's backing.
www.9news.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Dept of Corrections, not the Governor, saying this.
Also not saying that they do not intend to release her at all, only that they’re not responding to this request.
Also not saying that they do not intend to release her at all, only that they’re not responding to this request.
Reposted by Travis Klempan
LCS: ‘Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A surface combatant That Doesn’t Suck Shit, Huh?’
November 25, 2025 at 8:39 PM
LCS: ‘Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A surface combatant That Doesn’t Suck Shit, Huh?’
I swear to fucking Poseidon the Navy is run by idiots (pejorative).
BREAKING: Navy Cancels Constellation-class Frigate Program, Considering New Small Surface Combatants — USNI News
news.usni.org/2025/11/25/n...
news.usni.org/2025/11/25/n...
Navy Cancels Constellation-class Frigate Program - USNI News
The Navy is walking away from the Constellation-class frigate program to focus on new classes of warships the service can build faster, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan announced Tuesday on social me...
news.usni.org
November 25, 2025 at 8:55 PM
I swear to fucking Poseidon the Navy is run by idiots (pejorative).
Literal LinkedIn alert: “Use office chaos to your advantage. See how to make it a career opportunity.”
Okay, Littlefinger.
Okay, Littlefinger.
November 25, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Literal LinkedIn alert: “Use office chaos to your advantage. See how to make it a career opportunity.”
Okay, Littlefinger.
Okay, Littlefinger.
A Tom Hanks-branded dental clinic called the Molar Express
A Tom Hanks branded STD-prevention clinic called Saving Ryan's Privates
A Tom Hanks branded lumber company called Forrest Stump.
November 25, 2025 at 6:11 PM
A Tom Hanks-branded dental clinic called the Molar Express
Reposted by Travis Klempan
Meet “Charlie Sherpa” @fobhaiku.bsky.social, the GWOT mil-blogger who originated the “Sherpatudes”!
Part lessons-learned guy & unit historian, part war poet, part “brigade staff jester”! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry—you just might learn something to boot!
FIND ALL HIS BOOKS:
amzn.to/3Kd6kUU
Part lessons-learned guy & unit historian, part war poet, part “brigade staff jester”! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry—you just might learn something to boot!
FIND ALL HIS BOOKS:
amzn.to/3Kd6kUU
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Meet “Charlie Sherpa” @fobhaiku.bsky.social, the GWOT mil-blogger who originated the “Sherpatudes”!
Part lessons-learned guy & unit historian, part war poet, part “brigade staff jester”! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry—you just might learn something to boot!
FIND ALL HIS BOOKS:
amzn.to/3Kd6kUU
Part lessons-learned guy & unit historian, part war poet, part “brigade staff jester”! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry—you just might learn something to boot!
FIND ALL HIS BOOKS:
amzn.to/3Kd6kUU
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.”
The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow
Grateful to The Verge for publishing my essay on why large-language models are not going to achieve general intelligence nor push the scientific frontier.
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Is language the same as intelligence? The AI industry desperately needs it to be
The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake.
www.theverge.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:15 PM
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.”
The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow
What’s the deal with reversed uniform ribbons? Do I need more coffee?
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
What’s the deal with reversed uniform ribbons? Do I need more coffee?
Reposted by Travis Klempan
It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites.
About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4
About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites.
About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4
About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4
I’m sure it’s wrong but in my head I pronounce it “Cho-tee-ner.”
November 25, 2025 at 4:56 AM
I’m sure it’s wrong but in my head I pronounce it “Cho-tee-ner.”
Reposted by Travis Klempan
The device is the result of the collaboration between OpenAI and Apple’s former chief designer Jony Ive. Not much is known yet about the product except that it’s rumored to be “useless” and rectum-sized.
November 24, 2025 at 11:16 PM
The device is the result of the collaboration between OpenAI and Apple’s former chief designer Jony Ive. Not much is known yet about the product except that it’s rumored to be “useless” and rectum-sized.
Oh good we’re doing unhinged Star Wars takes. What’s next, washing chicken?
November 24, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Oh good we’re doing unhinged Star Wars takes. What’s next, washing chicken?